While Edmonton students are being jammed into lunchrooms and staff rooms due to overcrowding across the city, two southwest Edmonton schools are adjusting to the removal of two full grades.

Edmonton Public Schools removed all Grade 8 and 9 students at Esther Starkman and Johnny Bright schools and barred students living outside each school’s boundaries from returning this school year.

“It’s a big adjustment for us,” says Esther Starkman parent council president Mike Lanteigne. The school is still crowded, with an average class size of 33.5 students, but Lanteigne says he would like to see the older students repatriated to make use of the new school’s cutting-edge Industrial Arts shops and science labs.

“We would like to see the return of our Grade 8s and 9s as soon as possible.”

Esther Starkman’s exiting Grade 8 and 9 students were sent to Avalon and Riverbend schools this fall, while junior high students leaving Johnny Bright were designated to D.S. MacKenzie school.

As southwest Edmonton’s population continues to boom — close to 100,000 people are expected to move into the Heritage Valley corridor over the next decade — the need for junior high and high schools will keep growing.

Lanteigne, who has a blended family, has a daughter in Grade 2 at Esther Starkman and another in Grade 3 at Duggan school, which is under capacity. He says both are “awesome” schools that are very resourceful.

In the future, Lanteigne, who is running for Ward H school trustee, says he would like to see the school board be more proactive in getting new “state of the art” schools built throughout the city, and spend less money fixing older buildings in established neighbourhoods that are often leaking energy or in need of heavy maintenance.

Citing the example of Westbrook, Richard Secord, Greenfield and Duggan schools on the south side all being under capacity, Lanteigne says students would be better served by one large school serving all four neighbourhoods.

“I think I would vote for having my child go to a new, LEED-silver school that was more safe and environmentally sound and didn’t need tons of maintenance, than an older school. You could consolidate the 130 students at one school, the 200 students at another. Keep in mind that all these schools are built for 500 or 600 students,” he says.

“We have to examine where we’re putting our money as a board and spend it more wisely.